Part of the larger Red Sea Development project, Six Senses Southern Dunes is an ultra-high-end luxury retreat designed to complement and give prominence to the surrounding Saudi Arabian desert landscape. Landscape architecture firm SKS Studio and landscape design and planning firm 40NORTH - both based in Missouri - collaborated to provide design services on the project, ranging from concept master planning to design development for all landscape design site works. They formed part of a team made up of architects Foster + Partners, interior designers MuzaLab, and operator Six Senses to create a one-of-a-kind desert hospitality experience as the first resort for owner and developer Red Sea Global. The resort officially opened in November 2023.

The Six Senses Southern Dunes resort is a unique property nestled at the base of the Hijaz Mountains on the high-desert plains in the Red Sea region of Saudi Arabia. The principal goal for the site design was to create a quiet, completely unexpected guest experience fully integrated into the landscape of raw sand and rock. Unlike tropical island resorts, the lack of thick vegetation highlights the elements designers consciously placed to maximize the visual effect while minimizing the need to disrupt large areas. Of the site's approximate 500,000 square meters (around 5,382,000 square feet), less than half was disturbed. The project was developed in three primary spaces: The Oasis, The Main Resort Pool, and The Villas.

The Oasis
The arrival experience showcases the resort as a lush, secret landscape in the middle of a vast desert. The Oasis serves as the location's principal entrance and gathering spot, accessible only by navigating curvilinear paths that encourage guests to pause and explore various pocket gardens. Along the perimeter of the space sit a guest reception station, food and beverage opportunities, meeting rooms, and a gym. At the heart, guests can access the spa, a craft market, and a wadi area with a disc-shaped, reflecting water feature. The landscape is meandering and undulating, with grasses and papyrus, mature native trees, and Quronic and medicinal plantings at key locations.

The shade structures, designed by the architects, provided a more tempered environment within The Oasis. This allows for the inclusion of landscape species that could be considered more "tropical" in nature, as they are protected from the typical harsh sun and wind conditions found across the sand dunes.

As The Oasis is built on top of a services area, this demanded regular coordination with other consultants to obtain the optimum soil depths for the plantings. Since mature legacy canopy acacias required deeper soil depths, berming was used to provide sufficient room. To reduce additional loading on the sub-structure, EPS foam was utilized as a spacer under non-planted areas.

 

The Landscape Architects were heavily involved with the layout of all circulation routes to and within the site. It was critical to study the topography of the surrounding dunes and rocky hills to identify optimum placement for the roads, making sure they "fit" with the overall contours of the dunes. To do this, both the access to each building as well as the views to and from the roads themselves were considered. The goal was to make sure that guests cannot see the main roads from their rooms and that these roads create great viewing moments as visitors arrive to The Oasis.

The Main Resort Pool
While The Oasis is the center of all public and guest activity, the main resort pool is undoubtedly the area with the most activity for resort guests. The client had identified many program elements to be incorporated here, namely: a kids and teen center, a resort pool, a kitchen and bar, lockers, the Sunset F&B destination restaurant, and a Central Utility Plant (CUP).

A vantage point at the main pool building is perched slightly above the pool, encompassing the vast landscape beyond. From there, the space comprises a series of terraces that drop a total of 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) to provide scenic vistas overlooking the main pool. One end of the pool features a sloping "beach" entry while an infinity edge makes up half the pool's perimeter on the opposite side. From the beginning, the intent was to create organically shaped pools in crescent or ellipse shapes that would evoke a still pool of water in a desert environment, as can be found in conditions where deserts meet the sea.

An activity area for kids was designed in relation to the kids and teen center off the main pool building. This area includes a play structure over a soft play surface, a splash pad, and a family movie screening area. A timber architectural fence serves as a privacy barrier and sound buffer for the primary pool and terrace areas.

The dominant palms used throughout the main resort pool area are a multi-stem Cape Verde Island date palm (Phoenix atlantica) and native acacia trees. Shrubs, accent succulents, and palms are placed between sun terraces and private tented cabana areas as well as in other strategic locations to provide privacy to sunbathers. The native planting palette is sparse, clumped into beds of plants that replicate the surrounding landscape. Succulents were utilized only as unique design details in key areas, not in the general planting plan of the main resort pool.

This area also includes the specialty destination restaurant Sunset F&B. As the restaurant sits apart from other areas, it required its own design identity that still blended with the overall design concept. The final design features a main outdoor dining terrace as well as intimate dining spots separated from the main space. Communal and private fire pits are scattered along the edge of the space.

The Villas
Forty stand-alone, one-, two-, and three-room villas are dispersed among four clusters throughout the site and accessed via a polymer-stabilized, decomposed granite road suitable for walking, bicycling, or electric buggy use. Each cluster followed approximately the same contours as the sand dunes, placing the villas at the same topographic elevation. With the villas aligned vertically, elevation changes are kept to a minimum, site accessibility is increased, and the need for large amounts of stabilization or retaining walls for steep slopes is reduced. These clusters also allow the operator greater flexibility in managing operational costs. The design for each villa utilized natural stone and rock outcroppings for retaining walls, drainage swales, and steps, dependent on the location. In situations where slope stabilization was required, a geocellular grid system and plantings were incorporated.

Guests enter the villas through a private arrival garden complete with a compacted decomposed granite and sand walkway. At the rear of the unit, the main living area leads directly to a private terrace containing a "timber" pool deck and a small, resort-style pool complete with an infinity edge. Under the pool deck, hidden tanks supply natural gas to the fire pits. A staggered stone path connects the seating area and pool to a dedicated shower area. A shaded service yard to the side of each unit contains an irrigation tank, electric buggy recharging stations, and pool mechanical equipment. To incorporate elements of local tradition and dovetail with interior design direction, Barasti walls traditional to Gulf architecture made of fronds from common Date Palms were used to screen the service yard. Additional dense landscape provides screening between units and around service yards.

Design Challenges
This was a demanding yet exciting project for SKS Studio and 40NORTH. The main challenges included literally shifting sands, an aggressive and overlapping design and construction schedule, and a global pandemic. Shortly after the kickoff workshop and a site visit to the middle of nowhere, COVID-19 took hold of the world, leaving people suddenly quarantined to their respective countries with no travel allowed for months, for anyone. The design consultants for this project were spread across the world in London, Riyadh, Dubai, and Kansas City. In short order, the client tacked into the wind, revamping the entire design schedule to keep the project on track and fostering an aggressive design process in which the team communicated in real time multiple times a week. Taking advantage of technology - such as daily coordination and presentation calls on Microsoft Teams, shared documents on the cloud, and periodic videos from drone flights and other sources on site - kept the project on track, allowing it to be delivered to the operator less than 42 months after concept design began.

A Masterpiece In The Desert
Landscape Architecture had a huge impact on this project, down to its DNA. The intent was for this hotel to sit naturally amidst the ever-shifting sand dunes and take advantage of amazing views of the surrounding desert. The major design component of this project was not vegetation, as would typically be expected, but the manipulation of landforms and integration of hardscape to fit harmoniously with the natural conditions. What landscaped areas exist utilize many local or native species that would thrive in the harsh desert environment. The intent was not to transform the site, but to have the project sit within it and celebrate its natural beauty. A year after opening, Six Senses Southern Dunes has over one hundred five-star reviews on TripAdvisor, with many guests calling the resort "a work of art."